Behavioural biometrics and how they are helping to combat fraud

Fraudsters are getting more sophisticated in their techniques, but so are those tasked with protecting our data

Behavioural biometrics and how they are helping to combat fraud
Steve Randall

While the digitalization of life has many advantages, it also opens up new opportunities for fraudsters and scammers.

But evolving defences are helping financial services and other frequently-targeted industries to fight back with harder-to-break ways to secure data online.

One of these is behavioural biometrics.

The last few years has seen the growth of biometrics, especially on mobile devices, such as the use of fingerprints, and retina and face scanning to enable access.

Behavioural biometrics takes this further by analysing how a person interacts with a device, the angle at which they hold it, how much pressure they apply to its screen, surface swipes and directional motion, as well as typing rhythm and other keyboard patterns.

According to a new report from LexisNexis Risk Solutions and produced by financial industry advisory Aite-Novarica, several North American organizations are leading the use of this next-gen line of defence.

Success rate

It found that respondents rank their satisfaction with behavioural biometric solutions as second only to the risk engines they use, and above more established approaches, including third-party identity verification and credit bureau scoring.

"The adoption of behavioural biometrics technology is appealing from both a fraud prevention and customer experience perspective," said Jim Mortensen, strategic advisor at Aite-Novarica Group. "The capability is attractive as it authenticates users on a passive basis, in the background, and requires no active intervention by the customer beyond their normal use of the app or website."

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